Blogging

10 Better Ideas Than Looking at a Top 10 List for Advice

by Andrew Hanelly · January 10, 2012

Top 10 lists are like new year’s resolutions. They seem great at first, but they quickly make you feel bored, hopeless, and like you’ve wasted your time.

And that’s usually because they are filled with things you know you should do but can’t commit to doing. They’re too aspirational. Too shoot-for-the-moon-y.

Which is why I’ve kept this one bare-bones, tactical, and hopefully useful for you beyond the 4 days it typically takes us to crash and burn through our empty new year promises.

4 comments

A Business Can’t Be Social

by Ilana Rabinowitz · December 1, 2011

A business is a legal entity. Only the individual people within the business can engage in social media. That’s why, several weeks ago, I wrote about the major shift in thinking and behavior needed for a business to be successful in social media.

I’d like to take a deeper look into one of those areas: hiring and training everyone in the organization in the age of social media.

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7 Steps for Overcoming Writer’s Block (And Writing A Brilliant Blog )

by Mark Ivey · November 23, 2011

Don’t you hate writer’s block? You know you have brilliant ideas, but there’s that damn blank screen staring at you when you sit down to blog. Nothing happens. The brain’s in idle. Frustration begins to creep in. (Remember Jack Nicholson in The Shining?)

Many people struggle with writing. But I believe anyone can write and blog with the right approach. It’s not brain surgery, but it does take some work.

First, get over the idea that you have to write a blockbuster blog every time. We find in our training that many corporate bloggers are by nature analytical and perfectionists, which creates a lot of extra agony. It’s great to hit a home run, but mostly this is about hitting lots of singles and doubles.

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Education Is The New Marketing

by Ilana Rabinowitz · October 19, 2011

The internet has democratized education and businesses should take notice. You are in business because you have some area of expertise. Sharing your expertise is a way to help you build your brand and provide value. By using a combination of digital and offline tools, business can take advantage of the opportunity to add teaching to the marketing mix.

I’ve been reading The Education of Millionaires, a book by Michael Ellsberg that proposes that the best investment in education is one that offers lifelong, relevant knowledge that will make you financially successful. He urges people to find mentors and experts to teach the skills they need, rather than investing six figures in a traditional college education that is unlikely to contribute to their ability to earn a living.

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Broadening Your Content Core

by Stephanie Schwab · September 16, 2011

A couple of weeks ago I had a great baseball experience. It was a beautiful Friday night in Gary, Ind., and I was watching the Gary SouthShore Railcats, an Independent Professional Baseball team (like the minor leagues, but not quite that official), and I was surrounded by my extended family, including my parents, cousins, siblings, and aunts and uncles, plus my husband and 3-year old son. Our group was about 20 people ages 18 months to 70 years, with a mix of rabid baseball fans and people who just came for the family and the beautiful night.

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Bloggers Are Promotional Partners, Which Is Bad For PR

by Stephanie Schwab · August 4, 2011

I’ve been ranting for some time about the disconnect between PR and social media, and particularly between PR and blogger outreach. In the evolution of social media, somehow blogger outreach became equated with public relations’ pitching to journalists, and so for years it’s been largely the domain of PR coordinators and account executives.

That’s seems wrong. I feel that PR should not be primarily responsible for blogger outreach. And likely not for other types of social media either.

107 comments

When Content Is Not King

by Ilana Rabinowitz · July 27, 2011

You’ve done your homework, listened to customers, provided thought leadership and created great content. You’re offering relevant, valuable information to your audience. Now, if content were king that would be enough. But it’s not.

Isn’t providing information that leads people to know, like and trust you the essence of marketing? What more is there?

For one thing, there’s conversion. Conversion tells you if your content moves people to act. Did all that content drive people’s behavior in some way?

Content that doesn’t move people to ultimately take some kind of action doesn’t count.

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